Strangled by the Amazon-ctopus!

I confess that I am neck deep in Jeff Bezos’ armpits. I always have an uncomfortable feeling about being so tied in to the Amazon ecosystem. There are lots of problems with their business practices, but it always feels so hard to extricate myself! I love the convenience of prime shipping and it comes with music, some pretty good streaming options, and unlimited photo storage. I love reading on my kindle and the fact that I could bring a whole library with me to Bolivia.

I have prime through April 2019, but we also have several Kindles. So I have to find other ways to read books though I can use the kindle app on most devices. My youngest uses a 10″ Kindle Fire as her primary device and I would want to replace that at some point. We also use Prime Photos to back up everyone’s devices so I would have to figure out a new solution to that problem. There are definitely shows that are exclusive to Prime that we have enjoyed, but could certainly do without or find other ways to watch. While we’re overseas the prime shipping isn’t so useful, but it was super convenient when we lived in the US. That convenience comes at a cost that I am often too eager to ignore. There are costs to the environment and to the workers in Amazon’s distribution centers.

Here’s a recent video on Amazon’s ongoing problems with workers.

All in all, it will likely take me the rest of my current Prime subscription to extract myself from their clutches as I transfer files, replace devices, and slowly untangle Jeff Bezos’ tentacles from around me. In the end, I hope it’s worth it for the peace of mind and benefit to the environment and workers by supporting other companies. I’ll try to keep updating this journey for others with the alternatives that I find and what I think of them. Let me know if you’re joining me and what alternatives you have found.